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Saturday, August 3, 2013

Change is Coming

Articles published in professional journals are often not readily available online, particularly as journal publication has been taken over by commercial publishers. Many blog readers will undoubtedly have looked for an article and found only an abstract online, as per the accompanying picture.

But change is (hopefully) coming:

MEDIA RELEASEFriday, August 2, 2013UC Office of the Academic Senate

The Academic Senate of the
University of California has passed an Open Access Policy, ensuring that future
research articles authored by faculty at all 10 campuses of UC will be made
available to the public at no charge. “The Academic Council’s adoption of this
policy on July 24, 2013, came after a six-year process culminating in two years
of formal review and revision” said Robert Powell, chair of the Academic
Council. “Council’s intent is to make these articles widely — and freely — available
in order to advance research everywhere.” Articles will be available to the
public without charge via eScholarship (UC’s open access repository) in tandem
with their publication in scholarly journals.

Open access benefits researchers,
educational institutions, businesses, research funders and the public by
accelerating the pace of research, discovery and innovation and contributing to
the mission of advancing knowledge and encouraging new ideas and services.

Chris Kelty, Associate Professor of
Information Studies, UCLA, and chair of the UC University Committee on Library
and Scholarly Communication (UCOLASC), explains, “This policy will cover more
faculty and more research than ever before, and it sends a powerful message
that faculty want open access and they want it on terms that benefit the public
and the future of research.” ...